


Pay Up

by SPendragon (Zivqa)



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Barrisco - Freeform, FlashVibe Week 2016, M/M, One Shot, S. Pendragon Tries to fill out a fic request, Tumblr Prompt, but for now nope, flashvibe, i might write a sequel for smut once i get to know smut better, sort of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-20
Updated: 2016-08-20
Packaged: 2018-08-09 23:43:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7821835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zivqa/pseuds/SPendragon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by a tumblr prompt: "You rent me a room in your apartment and sometimes you let me skip the rent cause I have sex with you/you think I'm cute/literally anything tbh!"</p><p>Except it's a house. And there's no superpowers.</p><p>I can't make any guarantees for sequels, but...</p><p>OR: My excuse to practice writing short AU barrisco fics with a lot of angst and fluff.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pay Up

There was at least one week every month that Cisco was glad his landlord was Barry Allen.

Coming from the less-traveled parts of Central City, Cisco knew what it was like to see poverty. His family had been one of the more fortunate hispanic families in their neighborhood and actually owned a house, but he knew how other people lived. In drafty, tear-down tenements that charged too much for too little space, but were still cheap enough that those who couldn't afford anything better had to live there.

So of course, he knew he was privileged by living with Barry Allen.

He'd met Barry through work- the CSI had worked with STAR Labs on more than one occasion for various cases, and in mentioning he needed to move out of his parents’ house, Barry had offered a room in his house.

Taken aback, Cisco stuttered. “That's alright- I mean, you don't have to-”

Barry laughed and put his hand on Cisco’s shoulder. “It's fine, we've been wanting to rent this room out for awhile. Come by tomorrow and see the place if you want it.” Cisco had agreed, feeling like a truck had run him over, because boy he had  _ not _ been expecting  _ that _ .

After all, who would have expected cute, kind,  _ normal _ Barry Allen to offer a room to him?

When Cisco did come to see the place, it was a thousand times better than he'd expected. He'd thought he'd be renting something like a small basement- or if he was lucky, a spare bedroom- but instead, he found himself standing in the middle of the master bedroom. It was huge, took up the entire third floor, and had its own bathroom.

He blinked and turned to Barry. “I can't take this, it's-”

Barry laughed. “Don't worry about it. This bedroom used to be Iris’ before she moved out. I didn't really feel like moving all my stuff in here just for direct bathroom access, so…it's empty.” He shrugged. “As long as you don't mind living with my dad, who's grumpy before he gets his coffee, it's fine.”

Cisco turned to Barry. “How much?”

“One thousand.”

Cisco blinked in shock. For Central City, that was  _ cheap _ . One thousand a month was the rent for one-room, dirty tenement apartments, not this. He'd expected two thousand, at least.

He turned to Barry. “Are you sure? I mean, that seems low. And I mean  _ really _ low, dude. Are you messing with me?”

Laughing, Barry shook his head. “Nah.”

Cisco laughed with him. “I'll take it.”

He turned away to inspect the arched window before he could notice how Barry’s eyes lit up.

 

Cisco didn't have much, so he moved in within the next week. With his used furniture in the upstairs room, it somehow seemed even bigger. He felt tiny.

Googling how to  _ feng shui _ it or something so that it didn't feel that way didn't help, because all it recommended in the end was that he buy a rug. Which he did, but it didn't seem to help much.

Barry came up to his room on the first week and looked around appraisingly. “You so do not have as much stuff as Iris did. This room is  _ huge _ without her in it.”

Cisco laughed awkwardly. “Yeah. But it feels weird, dude. I'm used to living in a house with five people all running around making noise, leaving messes and having a lot of stuff. So this room just kinda feels empty.”

Barry shrugged and came over to him. “Then let's fix that. We can go to IKEA or something later, get you a- a chair? I don't know.” He laughed, and Cisco stiffened.  _ God _ , that laugh was cute. “I don't really know much about decorating, to be honest.”

Cisco looked at him hesitantly. “Actually, I, um- I meant to ask you this before. I do a lot of tech-building for STAR Labs, so I was wondering if I could buy a work desk and work at home? It's gonna look weird, though.”

Barry nodded, suppressing a grin. “That sounds cool. Just one rule.”

“Yeah?”

“I get to see some of your tech.”

Cisco laughed and nodded. Smiling, Barry turned and left.

Every morning, Joe woke up and made coffee at 7. Cisco somehow adapted to waking up when he smelled coffee coming from downstairs. Barry, however, seemed to be unable to wake up to anything. When he asked Joe about it, the older man began to laugh hard, taking a minute to recover enough to speak. “Barry’s a slow-ass duck. He's always late.”

Cisco would keep that in mind.

Barry and Cisco became closer friends, eventually introducing each other to their other friends. Cisco met Iris in the first two weeks of living at Barry’s house, given that her family still lived there.

“So this is the famous Cisco Ramon,” Iris joked. Barry elbowed her, but laughed. “Yeah, he just moved in. Took  _ your _ room.”

“My room?” Iris feigned shock. “I thought you were turning that into a gym,” she said, turning to her father.

“We all know I'm not turning it into a gym.”

Laughter collectively rang through the living room.

 

Barry watched Cisco as he laughed, watching his eyes light up as he grew more comfortable with the Wests and joined their conversation. Barry felt happier, too. It was- it was good that he was more comfortable here. It was not that Barry liked seeing him laugh. That was most definitely not the reason.

Later, Iris pulled Barry outside with her and shoved him up against the side of the house. “Hey!” His protests were in vain.

“Dad, told me, that you gave Cisco the apartment for just one thousand a month.” Her voice got higher as she spoke, and she suppressed a grin. “You and I both know that's way too cheap for my room. You  _ like _ him.”

“What? No.” He avoided her eyes. She snickered and let go of him. “Alright, pretty boy.”

Barry practically ran back inside the house- moving a lot quicker than he usually did.

 

It took a year before something went wrong.

Normally, Barry didn't wake up for anything. Ever. Cisco had built him an alarm clock that screamed in his ear, and he even ignored that for a few minutes before he got up. But this was a night that was different, somehow- because he woke up immediately when he heard Cisco start screaming.

He was out of his bed and upstairs in a flash, moving quicker than he'd ever thought he could, sitting on the side of Cisco’s bed and shaking him. “Cisco. Cisco, wake up. Cisco!”

Cisco was up immediately, jolting upright and cutting off his screams. Barry filled the silence, murmuring to him. “It's alright, Cisco, it's okay,” he whispered, rubbing circles on his back unconsciously. The inventor stared ahead into nothingness for a good ten minutes before he acknowledged that anyone was with him. In that time, Joe came running upstairs, saw Barry comforting Cisco, and went back downstairs without either of them noticing.

Barry’s attention was completely on Cisco.

When Cisco did come to attention, he turned slowly, looked at Barry, and shook his head. “I- I-”

Barry pulled him into a hug. “Shh, it's okay. You don't have to explain yourself. It's okay.”

They stayed like that for a while before Cisco finally got up and headed downstairs, holding tightly onto Barry. Barry helped him without a word.

It was after Cisco had eaten two hastily-microwaved pancakes and a cup of coffee that he began to speak.

“When I was seventeen,” he whispered, not making eye contact with the listening Barry, “I was kidnapped by and forced to make weapons for a man named Leonard Snart.”

Barry straightened. He knew that name.

Noticing his change in posture, Cisco nodded. “Yeah. His ‘cold gun?’ I'm the one who made that. But see, he broke it, and I refused to make any more for him. The police had protected me, so he couldn't get to me without making a mess and killing people- people he didn't want to kill. So instead…” He shuddered. “Instead, he kidnapped my brother.

“Dante lost an arm and two fingers because of me. Every time I moved or did something wrong- even if I breathed wrong- he shot him. The frostbite killed his left arm completely. I remember having to watch as my brother amputated his own arm to save his life, and then I- I had to cut off two of his fingers so the frostbite wouldn't spread. Dante used to be a piano player. Now he's just disabled. Because of me.”

Barry stood up, vaulted over the table, and hugged Cisco. “No. It's not your fault.”

“Barry, it is. He-”

“No, Cisco, it isn't. I remember going through your case, though I forgot that it was you. Leonard Snart was desperate and unhinged. CCPD had already taken his partner, Mick Rory, and his sister, Lisa Snart, into custody. We’d already taken their guns and confiscated them. He would have hurt your brother anyway- out of anger, vengeance, or something. I-” Barry broke off. “Anyway, it wasn't your fault. Leonard Snart is a horrible excuse for a human being. You're not the only one he did that to. He did it to a lot of other people, for no reason at all. It's not your fault.”

Cisco said nothing, but he stood and turned to Barry, tears streaming down his cheeks.

Barry wiped them off- and then he kissed him.

Cisco returned the kiss, tentative and careful, and Barry pushed further, passionate and intense.

It took a while before they broke apart, gasping for air, smiles pulling at their mouths. Cisco laughed weakly, and Barry kissed him again.

“I love your laugh,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around Cisco’s neck.

“I love your face,” Cisco returned, then laughed at the absurdity of his comment. “Mood-killer.”

“No, I love it,” Barry whispered, pulling him into a deeper embrace.

Cisco broke away from him and led him upstairs, to his room, where the door stayed shut the entire night.

 

In the morning, Joe was surprised to see the two already sitting at the kitchen table, laughing when he got his coffee. Both looked tired, but excited at the same time.

"Nerds," he muttered, smiling softly.

Iris would be excited to hear this.

When Joe was gone, Cisco turned to Barry inquisitively. “I have a question. When you gave me the room for so cheap- were you just being nice, or…?”

Barry laughed. “I don't know, I just felt like I really needed you around.”

He then pulled him into another kiss, which Cisco returned, wrapping his arms around Barry’s neck.

“Besides,” he murmured into Cisco’s ear, “last night, you sure as hell paid for it anyway.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry, no smut!
> 
> Yet.
> 
> Can't make any promises for sequels.
> 
> But anyway, tumblr prompt credit to reid-me-like-a-book.


End file.
